Come fly with me

Most Spectator readers no doubt know that this is the 100th anniversary of aviation and that the patriotic American brothers, Wilbur and Orville Wright, flew the world’s first aeroplane. I would imagine most of the readers have also heard of Charles Lindbergh, who was the first man to fly across the Atlantic in 1927. These names, along with Chuck Yeager, Buzz Aldrin and most recently Steve Fossett, join a host of other Americans who had ‘the Right Stuff’ and are etched into both the history of aviation as well as the imagination of every child enthusiast who looks up at the sky.

Sadly, virtually no one realises that this year is really the 150th anniversary of aviation. They would also be staggered to hear that the father of flight is not an American at all but a British landowner, entrepreneur and scientist called Sir George Cayley. On 5 July 1853 his loyal coachman was the first man to fly in an aircraft with a modern wing.